Wow Dick Gordon

WATCH VIDEO:

http://www.gmanews.tv/largevideo/related/33453/-Saksi–Bolante-’runner’-to-stay-under-Senate-custody

Independent Senator Richard J. Gordon today brought Ms. Marites Aytona to the Senate after she surrendered and agreed to testify before the Senate blue ribbon committee probing the P728-million fertilizer fund scam.

Gordon, committee chair, arrived at the Senate with Aytona and immediately brought her to the Senate clinic to have her checked by the doctors for her high blood pressure.

“Ms. Aytona called me up last night, and I told her if she wants she could meet with me today. And that’s what she did. We met at the Sofitel hotel and I brought her here at the Senate,” he said.

Gordon said Aytona will be under the Senate’s custody but could not divulge where she would be detained for her safety.

He added that Aytona has not yet revealed much about her knowledge of the fertilizer fund project. She only maintained that she knows Jaime “Jimmy” Paule, but not the former agriculture undersecretary Jocelyn Bolante.

“I asked her about the statement she sent to the (Senate) blue ribbon (committee) a few weeks ago. The only thing she said is that the person who called her and gave her a three-percent commission was Paule,” Gordon said.

The senator said she expects Aytona to be honest and to disclose everything she knows about the fertilizer fund scam as the committee resumes its hearing on Dec. 22.

“My position has never changed - I am opposed to changing our Constitution before 2010. If we have to change our Charter, we must do so after the elections and the Filipino electorate should be part of the democratic process,” said independent Senator Richard J. Gordon who today opposed anew moves to introduce amendments to - or revisions of - the 1987 Constitution before the May 2010 elections.

Gordon, former chairman of the Senate constitutional amendments committee, said he has always been consistent with his stand against changing the Constitution, an issue he labeled as “ill-timed, divisive and incendiary.”

“Our economy requires the undivided attention of the political leadership, and it is not a time to be divided. Rather, it is a time to focus on the real problems of the nation. I will not dance to Cha-cha before 2010,” he added.

Gordon, the youngest delegate of the 1971 Constitutional Convention, said he wants the issue of amending the Charter as an “election issue” so that the public can debate not only the mode but also the merits of changing the Charter.

“The issue of Charter change should be made an election issue and be part of the national discourse among candidates so the people will know the respective stand on the issue among those whom they are voting in office,” he said.

“This way,” Gordon explained, “the people will not be suspicious about the motives or about the vested political interest of those who are pushing for amending the Constitution.”

Gordon also wanted that the Filipino electorate be part of the democratic process of amending the Constitution so that for the first time in the country’s political history they can finally own it as their very own.

According to him, the Malolos Constitution is considered as a revolutionary constitution, the 1935 Commonwealth Constitution as a colonial constitution, while the 1973 Constitution was devised under the auspices of martial law, and the 1987 Constitution was drafted by a group of arbitrarily appointed persons.

“People should be part of the process of changing the Constitution. The people owns the Charter, therefore, they must be a part of any changes,” he said.

The Senate blue ribbon committee today ordered the immediate arrest of former agriculture undersecretary Jocelyn Bolante for giving several evasive testimonies before senators probing his alleged involvement into the P728-million fertilizer fund scam.

Independent Senator Richard J. Gordon made the announcement after 11 of the 17 members of the panel he chairs have signed the resolution which cited eight evasive statements made by Bolante as bases for the Senate’s contempt order.

“We have obtained a majority of votes to cite Mr. Bolante in contempt, arrest him, and have him detained here at the Senate,” he said in a press briefing after a caucus with the members of the committee.

Among those who signed the contempt order were Senators Gordon, Mar Roxas, Aquilino Pimentel, Panfilo Lacson, Gregorio Honasan, Rodolfo Biazon, Francis Escudero, Ramon Revilla Jr., Pia Cayetano, Jinggoy Estrada, and Loren Legarda.

Gordon said they are only waiting for the signature of Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile to have the order served by the Senate sergeant-at-arms.

The blue ribbon chair said that Bolante’s contradicting statements and continuous evasiveness during the panel’s hearings last Nov. 13, 25, & 28, on the fertilizer fund program were enough bases to have the former agriculture undersecretary be held for contempt.

Gordon said that during the hearings, Bolante maintained that his only role in the program was to “download” the funds, and that it was a regular program of the Department of Agriculture (DA).

However, DA Regional Field Unit (RFU) directors contradicted Bolante’s statements, saying that the Farm Inputs-Farm Implements program was never a regular project of the department.

The regional directors also said that letters of instruction and purchase orders regarding the program were signed by Bolante, thereby opposing his statement that he was not part of the implementation of the project.

“During the hearings, we have already proven that Bolante was on top of these things. He was the one in-charge of this program. And the regional directors all attested to that,” Gordon said.

Gordon said that during the caucus, the senators also agreed to amend the rules of the Senate and the Senate blue ribbon committee in citing a person in contempt.

In the amended rules, the committee, through a majority vote of its members, may punish for contempt any witness before it who disobeys the order of the committee, including refusal to produce documents pursuant to a subpoena duces tecum, or refuses to be sworn or to testify or to answer a proper question by the committee or any of its members, or testifying, testifies falsely or evasively.

On India and Thailand incidents

Q: Do you think what happened in India and Thailand can also happen here?

Gordon: Yes. In fact, the Thais are merely taking a cue from us from EDSA 1 and 2. But they’re more aggressive, they have taken over the airports, that’s very serious. And the army is still not doing anything about it. I hope that for the sake of Thailand, I really don’t want a situation where the army always comes in and interferes in political action like this. It’s a very bad precedent.

Q: What could possibly trigger that? Could it be Cha-cha?

Gordon: Well, sometimes people remain quiet and docile and then something breaks. The unabashed attempt to try and change the Constitution … I’m glad it’s dead. I hear it’s dead. Many congressmen are taking heed, they’re withdrawing their signatures in Congress on the Cha-Cha bid. It really is untenable. It cannot be, to have the Congress act jointly and vote jointly is an impossibility because the Constitution has really delineated the time when Congress can act jointly and vote jointly, and that is only in the case of lifting Martial Law or habeas corpus.

Senator Richard Gordon, the new chair of the Senate Blue Ribbon committee, said Thursday that the Senate will not agree to form a Constituent Assembly and change the charter through joint voting by both chambers.